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64 towards me and agreed to do so, and sent me four thousand men, and with these men and those that were already with me, I made an expedition and overran the whole of the country. And seeing the damages which they had suffered they sent me messengers to tell me that now they wished to be good, and that if they had erred it had been at the order of their chiefs, and that whilst their chiefs had been living they dared not do otherwise, but as now their chiefs were dead they prayed me to pardon them, and I spared their lives, and ordered them to return to their houses and live as they had done formerly; and this they did, and at the present time I have them in the same condition as they were formerly, but at the service of his Majesty. And for greater security I chose out two sons of the chiefs, whom I placed in their fathers' position, and I believe that they will carry out faithfully all that tends to the service of his Majesty and the good of his lands. And as far as touches the war I have nothing more at present to relate, but that all the prisoners of war were branded and made slaves, of whom I gave his Majesty's fifth part to the treasurer Baltasar de Mendoza, which he sold by public auction, so that the payment to his Majesty should be secure.

"I would wish your Excellency to know that the country is healthy and the climate temperate, that there are many strong towns, and that this city is well built and wonderfully strong, and has much cornland and many people subject to it, the which, with all the subject towns and neighbourhoods, I have placed under the yoke and in the service of the royal crown of his Majesty.

"In this country there is a mountain range of alum, another of copperas, and another of sulphur, the best which I have yet seen, and with a piece of it which they brought me without refining or any such process, I made half an arroba of very good gun-powder but as I wish to send off Argueta without delay, I do not send to your Excellency 50 charges of it, but whenever there should be a messenger there will be time for it. On Monday, April 11th, I started for Guatemala, where I mean to halt for a short time, because the town which is situated on the water called Atitlan is at war with me, and has killed four of my messengers, and I think with the aid of our Lord soon to subdue it to the service of his Majesty."

Alvarado then marched to Iximché, or Guatemala, as he calls it, and was received in a most friendly manner by the Cachiquels: "we could not have been better treated in our fathers' houses," he writes to Cortéz. After a few days' rest he joined his hosts in an expedition against the Tzutuhils; but he shall continue to tell the story in his own words:—

"I left this town (Iximché) to go against them with seventy horsemen and a hundred and fifty foot, in company with the chieftains and people of this land, and we marched so far that we arrived in the enemy's land on the